


I Want To Leave

by Macremae



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Gen, I did, Post episode 18, did you not see this coming from the premise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-29
Updated: 2015-07-29
Packaged: 2018-04-11 22:51:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4455518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Macremae/pseuds/Macremae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hera and Eiffel encounter the ghost of one of the crew members from the Hephaestus's first mission.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Want To Leave

**Author's Note:**

> This concept really interested me, because with how those guys died, there's no way there aren't some lingering spirits flying around the ship. Sorry if it feels rushed, I wrote this in one morning.

“Well, it's a joke because it plays on words.”

“I still don’t understand. Shouldn’t it be, ‘to get to the other side’?”

“No, Hera, ‘cause slide sounds like… you know what, just forget it, it’s not even that funny.”

Eiffel had long since realized that trying to explain wordplay to Hera was like trying to teach a buffalo computer coding, but he still gave it a shot every now and then. Apparently the people who had invented her brand of AI didn’t have a sense of humor. 

“Okay, do you want to play I Spy?” she asked.

Eiffel rolled his eyes. “Sure. I spy something that’s black, endless, and almost got me killed several times. Three guesses to what it is.”

“I imagine it’s space?”

“Ding, ding, ding! Right on the nose Hera.”

The two were quiet for several moments as a blip of classical music flashed through the speakers for the third time that day. It lingered for a moment, then disappeared as quickly as it came.

“You know,” Eiffel mused, “if we ever meet whatever sent that signal, I want to introduce them to rock, as they clearly haven’t discovered it. I mean seriously, that message has played everything from jazz to a flute solo, but not a single note of alien Green Day. What’s up with that?”

Hera made a noise of agreement, and the two fell silent again, their ears attuned for the music’s return.

Suddenly, a soft, sigh-like sound echoed through the room. Eiffel sat bolt upright in his chair. “Hera, there it is again!”

“Um, Eiffel, there isn’t any music playing.” 

He shook his head. “No, not the signal, that other noise I was telling you about! The one we couldn’t pinpoint.”

“You mean the whistling?”

“Yeah, that. It’s not coming from the air vents, so we know it isn’t Audrey II’s third cousin, and it doesn’t show up on the radar either. It has to be something else.”

Hera sighed. “Eiffel, I know what you’re thinking, and there is no way it’s a ghost.”

“Since when do you read minds? And it could too.” he protested.

“He’s not wrong you know.” came a voice from nowhere. 

Both Eiffel and Hera made a very undignified noise, spinning around (or in Hera’s case, adjusting her scope) to see the hazy, translucent shape of a woman hovering near the comms room door.

She was tall, with long, stringy hair and a willowy form, her eyes worn and listless. There was evidence of dark circles under them, and a chunk of her throat appeared to have been dissolved. 

“My apologies if I’ve frightened you.” she said, eyeing the mixture of shock and bewilderment that was spread across Eiffel’s face.

He blinked a few times, and seemed to snap out of it. “Um, no problem miss. We see weirder stuff than you every day.”

She gave him an wane smile. “Considering the ship you’re on, I find that quite believable. Are you part of another group who’s been sent up in the damnable craft?”

“Yes,” replied Hera, “and we found Captain Lovelace’s audio logs. Are- well, were, you one of the people on board with her?”

The specter nodded. “Ah Lovelace. She was a good captain, if a little on the flippant side. I’m glad she got out of here.”

Eiffel and Hera exchanged a glance. They knew, though not for a fact, that Captain Lovelace had been sucked into the red dwarf and burnt up, but that probably wasn’t a detail they should share.

“So,” Eiffel began, “Miss Ghost Lady-”

“Please,” she interrupted, “call me Maya.”

“Okay, Maya, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s up with the hole in your throat?”

“Eiffel!” hissed Hera, “Tactless much?”

“It’s alright,” Maya said, “I don’t mind. 

If you’ve heard the logs, then you know that bastard Hilbert was killing us off one by one. When I was alive, I had an annoying little ailment called asthma, and one day while exercising I began having an attack. Luckily, or so I thought, Hilbert was in the room with me. I couldn’t find my inhaler, so he offered me a pill he said would help open up my lungs. Foolishly, I took it, and thus…”, she pointed at the jagged hole in her throat.

It was safe to say that the look on Eiffel’s face (and Hera’s screen) could quite simply be described as pure and absolute horror.

Hera was the first to speak. “Can we kill him now?”

“No.”

“But he-”

“No.”

Maya sighed. “As awful as it is to seen that man alive, I agree with your comms officer. It would be unwise to kill Hilbert when he is the only source of information you posses.”

Hera made a disgruntled noise that sounded somewhat like “Fine.”

“Well, if you’re not staying around for vengeance on him, why are you still here? ” Eiffel asked.

“Yeah,” Hera added, “why don’t you leave?”

Maya stiffened, and her eyes grew wide. “Leave?” she said, her voice beginning to shake. “Leave? Do you honestly think that hasn’t been the sole thing I’ve been trying to do ever since I found out I was a ghost? You can’t even imagine how this feels, knowing that there’s a simple and concrete way to get out of here, but being unable to figure out what it is no matter how hard you try, no matter what options you consider. I want to leave here with every fiber of my being, but for some reason, I can’t!”

Her body seemed to wilt, and Maya let out a long, shuddering sigh. She then floated to one of the windows looking out at the red dwarf, a defeated look in her eyes.

“I just want to go home.”

Maya turned to Hera and Eiffel, who were watching her warily, as if she might start levitating objects at their heads. She smiled melancholically.

“But I know that’s not an option now, is it.”

Shaking her head, she floated towards the doorway. “I’m sorry for my outburst. I haven’t gotten to talk to anyone in a while.”

Her body began to fade away, dissipating slowly into the air.

“Good luck to both of you.

I hope this crew gets a happy ending.”


End file.
